No she's not, but she's had a couple of games where she's been on. Let's not forget how fun it was when she hit 7 threes in a game vs CSU not too long ago this season.
KL game log this season (3 pointers: Made-Attempts):
4-8
1-3
1-10
2-8
3-7
1-6
1-5
1-5
7-11
1-4
2-7
0-0
0-8
0-5
2-8
Since she dropped those 7 threes on Colorado State she's been just
5-32 since, which is frustrating as there are good 3-point shooters on this team. She's only shooting .274 on 3s for the season. The Buffs as a team shoot .331 for 3s on the season.
In Pac-12 play she has 21 Assists and 16 Turnovers.
She's an elite scorer, no doubt about it. However, Colorado has had some great scoring guards.
Shelly Sheetz finished with 1775 points on winning teams. NCAA appearances.
Chucky Jeffrey finished with 1644 points on winning teams. NCAA appearance, WNIT Qtr finals multiple times.
I think Kennedy Leonard could start on most Colorado teams, but we've had too much tradition and too many great players on winning teams for me to agree that a player with 3 conference wins in two seasons of Div-I play could start on any CU team ever. She doesn't start on Sheetz's or Chucky's teams. Both were significantly better defenders and great leaders, and elevated their teammates around them. Sheetz was a great distributor and a much much better three point shooter (.381 career). Chucky was brilliant at running the transition game and the best rebounding guard we'll ever see in our lifetime, and was a great scorer in her own right. Leonard also scored a lot of her points during irrelevant minutes of games that were long since over. Chucky and Sheetz did it when it mattered in winning efforts, not in garbage time. I don't sit down either Sheetz or Chucky to start Leonard on those CU teams, and KL doesn't have the type of game to be effective as an off guard. She needs the ball to be effective. She doesn't have the height or the perimeter defense or athleticism to guard off guards, combo guards or true twos. I wouldn't take the ball out of Shelly or Chucky's hands, but that's just me.
I'd love to see KL with some of the other great Colorado players around her. I think we'd see a whole other level of play from her if she had better players around her, however, her attempts and scoring would go down as well. Its an either/or thing. I think Leonard is like the NCAAW version of AI without the defense. She's that special. One of the best scoring players you'll ever see just like AI, worth the price of the ticket, but like AI not always winning basketball. However, when she's on, she's on, as a scorer. I don't think she'll ever get Lisa Van Goor's single season scoring record at 678 points. However, I truly believe KL will have the #1 single season scoring average, maybe even this season. She's dominating FG attempts late in games and getting to the line as well.
Its an academic debate, who is better AI or Chauncey Billiups. Most would say AI. I'd say championships matter, being a leader on a championship team matters, and I'd say
scoring averages on teams that don't win anything don't matter. That's just me. I'll tell you what though, AI sold a lot more tickets and merchandise than Chauncey ever did.
I'll say this. I don't know how painful this season would actually be if KL wasn't on this roster. KL is a good enough player to single handily drag just about any program in ANY conference from irrelevance to an NCAAW tournament appearance, just not the Pac-12 conference. It isn't her fault, but she doesn't have the height, the athleticism or the frame to handle the physicality of playing teams like ASU or other Pac-12 opponents.
It isn't a fair observation of a player to say "they need to grow taller." That's not something they can control. The modern game is different than the era Sheetz played in though. Sheetz was a great player, but she wasn't matching up against the type of athletes that Leonard has to face. I think its fair to say that, for sure. Chucky was a battler, and a strong and tough player that played beyond her size. We've seen her handle the physicality of the Pac-12 opponents and win many of those match ups.
If you watch or read JR Payne after the game, she essentially says she doesn't have Pac-12 height or talent. Most of the quotes from the coach or players acknowledges they just don't the size or athleticism to match up with Pac-12 players they are seeing.
http://www.cubuffs.com/news/2017/1/...-devils-prove-too-much-for-erratic-buffs.aspx
To compete in the Pac-12 you need tall and athletic basketball players. CU doesn't have those players, plain and simple. For right now. This program is moving in the right direction. This program is getting better. The culture is changing. The athletes are going to come. CU has too great of a tradition, is too attractive of a school, and JR Payne is too good of a coach.
That's my entire frustration. The narrative of every CU game is that the Buffs don't have the players they need to compete in the Pac-12. Its the opposite reality from the false narrative that the Buffs have any elite Pac-12 players. Which is not to say the Buffs don't have great basketball players. Every basketball player on this Buffs roster is a good basketball player or she wouldn't be here.
This is a team that would go to the NCAA tournament in just about any conference. However, they probably won't win barely any games in the Pac-12, this conference is THAT good. There is no better conference in all of NCAAW no matter how you figure it. These are some of the best women's basketball players on the planet. This is not NCAAW, this is the Pac-12. The Buffs are a top-50 NCAAW program right now, and that's good enough to just be one of the doormats of the Pac-12.
